Baler-wrapper combinations are well known for agricultural machines. They may include a round baler including a bale pressing chamber combined with a bale wrapping arrangement attachable to said round baler. The bale pressing chamber receives the crop products. The bale pressing chamber has pressing elements for pressing the crop products therewithin into a cylindrical bale. After the bale is formed, the bale might be guided to the bale wrapping arrangement having a wrap material supply for introducing a wrap material into the bale wrapping arrangement. The round bales are wrapped with the wrap material around the periphery of a bale.
The wrapping arrangement may include a support table on which a pressed bale can be placed for being wrapped. The support table includes means for providing a rotation to the bale around its center rotation axis. Additionally, one or more wrapping arms equipped with wrapping material are being rotated around the bale in order to wrap the bale by layers of wrap material. The combined movements of the rotating bale and the rotating arm(s) provide a wrapping of layers of the wrap material around the outer surfaces of the bale. At an onset of starting the wrapping of an agricultural bale or when a wrap material supply roll needs to be replaced, the wrapping material needs to be prepared, such that a starting portion of wrap material is unwound from a wrap material supply roll and stretched into a wrapping position by clamping the free end of wrap material into a clamping and cutting arrangement. The clamping and cutting arrangement holds the wrap material under tension in the stretched position and is further equipped with cutting means in order to separate the wrapped material from the remaining wrap material on the supply roll after completion of a bale wrapping cycle. Thus, the wrap material is cut-off, by a wrap material clamp and cutting device of the bale wrapping arrangement, such that, the portion of the wrap material enclosing the bale is separated from the wrap material supply.
In conventional balers, the operator is required to prepare the wrap material manually and to clamp the wrap material free end onto the clamping and cutting arrangement. This operation is time consuming and further poses safety concerns to the operator as the wrap material cutting arrangement is required to be handled. In case the operator is inadvertent, this may lead to accidents. Some attempts have been made to facilitate this operation and to avoid accidents by forming a knot on the free end of the wrap material and placing the free end in a slot in order to hold the free end under tension when setting up (preparing) the wrapping arrangement. The provided slot may hold the free end of the wrap material and the formed knot may avoid the free end from slipping through the slot, so that a stretching operation is provided when the wrapping arm starts rotating. Disadvantageously, when the first wrapping cycle is completed and it comes to the separation of wrapped material from the supply roll the free end which has been inserted in the slot may be tension released and falls down to the ground where it needs to be collected by the operator.
Thus, the present disclosure provides an improved solution to avoid above mentioned disadvantage and to provide safe operating condition to the operator while handling the wrap material during setting up of the agricultural baler for operation thereof.